“’Tis okay, lass.” My father tried to look gentler, sound like it too, but he was far too gone in his wolf-aggression to pull it off. “We will no’ let him get tae ye.”
But my body was rejecting the idea that I couldn’t go to Luca.
I really am his, the pull too strong, too consuming.
A shifter female could feel a semblance of the pull from the supernatural Linked Mate connection, but it wasn’t nearly as powerful as what the male felt. For them, it was all-consuming, untenable, and it was their life goal to acquire. And the pull of the Linked connection was even weaker in me still, because I was a hybrid. But if I felt this strongly for Luca even with it being so dimmed, how powerful must his need be?
I snapped my focus back to Luca. He still looked at me, and I knew he hadn’t taken his gaze off me this entire time. His grin widened, but it wasn’t pleasant. It was wolf-like, as if he was about to attack, about to take down his prey.
And I'm the prey. I’m what he wants above all else.
His incisors were so big and white… so long and sharp.
I swayed again as I imagined what a Lycan male did with those incisors when he claimed his Linked Mate for the first time.
And as Luca took note of how my father and brothers took a protective stance, he chuckled low, deep, the sound distorted because of his beast. That laugh told me one thing—nothing would keep him from getting to me, not even four full-grown Lycans, or hell, a roomful of dangerous males.
Luca lifted his hand, his finger pointing to me.
My heart was thundering in my chest, my throat too tight, my tongue too thick.
He took a small step forward, and the room pulsed with aggression, with need and intent. My brothers and father made low noises, a warning that Luca didn’t heed, one that actually made his grin widen.
“Female.” That one word vibrating from his chest, a deep rumble I felt everywhere. “You are mine.”
And that's when all hell broke loose.
3
Luca
Ours.
Claim her now. Mate her. Mark her.
My beast howled, snapped... demanded I do these things now.
Bind her to us. Clutch her tight. Take her from the ones who block you from her.
I bared my teeth and growled at the four males who made a wall in front of my tiny mate. I felt my canines lengthen even more, felt my nearly seven-foot-tall height surge. I’d already been on the verge of shifting into my wolf for so long it had become my second nature.
But now we grew bigger, faster, stronger to better protect her.
Power surged to life inside me for the first time in over four hundred years.
She peeked her head around the thickly corded arm of one of the males, her hair a light tumbling of thick waves.
The air left my lungs, my body growing bigger, harder.
She was here, finally here, just mere feet separating us. Gods, she was lovely, the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
She stared right into my eyes, hers wide and blue, as blue as the ocean, and bright as the stars.
One of the males threw his arm out like a bar in front of her, and I snapped my head in his direction, growling low, a warning that he was not to touch what was mine.
I flared my nostrils as I inhaled, taking in her scent. She smelled glorious, like the sun, and fresh, and mine.
A scent that drove me fucking insane with need and want, hope and lust. The amount of new emotions slamming back and forth inside me could have brought a lesser male to his knees. My head swam, my blood rushing. I inhaled again, scenting my own claiming aroma, one that would coat my mate when I finally claimed her, along with the bite I’d put in that slender, pretty neck of hers.
At the thought of sinking my canines into her tender throat, I grew harder, my wolf more frantic.
Go to her now!
I inhaled again, sifting through the scents in the room to decipher who these males were to her. Gods help them if they thought to claim her. My inner wolf clawed to get free and put them in their place, to make those pups submit to my dominance and alpha power.
But they were family, sharing the same blood as my tiny mate.
A male to my right stepped closer to me, and I swung my body around to face him. He was a large male, a vampire who I scented aggression from. A female stood behind him as he used his big body to shield her. She was his mate.
I could have torn out his throat for even daring to come close, to think he could stop me. I shook my head to clear it, drawing on my humanity to grate out in a distorted voice, “You’d do well to keep your distance, vampire.” My canines dripped with saliva, my animal pushing forward even more. “I only crave one in this room.”